Posts Tagged move

“What do we do with all of the stuff we don’t need anymore?”

If you are planning a commercial moving project, you should answer that question sooner rather than later. If you wait too long, you are often left with only one choice of what to do with unused furniture or equipment: Throw it in a dumpster.

Yet, with some early planning, we find that many of these items can be donated, reused or recycled. This is not only good for the planet, but recycling helps reduce overall waste volume, which could lead to cost savings during a move.

At Hoffberger, we offer the following recycling guidelines and services for all of our government, corporate and non-profit moving clients:

• Furniture: We encourage donating unused furniture to non- profit and charitable organizations, possibly resulting in a favorable tax outcome. We can also put clients in touch with used furniture dealers or auctioneers. In some cases, auctions can even be held online to minimize the impact on your operations.

• Paper and cardboard: When cleaning out files and paper, we offer documentation destruction for sensitive materials, and we provide a certificate of destruction to protect the security of the company. Shredded paper and cardboard boxes can then be recycled.

• Pallets and work surfaces: Wood pallets can easily be reused or taken to a processor who will grind them into wood fiber for other products. When workstations are being discarded, work surfaces can often be removed and ground into wood fiber as well.

• Scrap metal: Metal filing cabinets and other metal pieces (in the steel or aluminum frame of fabric-covered partitions, for example) can be recycled as scrap metal.

• Electronics: We use a specialist to dismantle and recycle electronics, which helps keep hazardous materials out of landfills. When concerns arise for the security of critical data, we work with firms that destroy hard drives and other data storage devices prior to recycling the component parts.

• Data and telecom wiring: These cables can be recycled for the copper and other valuable metals they contain.

• Plastics, Styrofoam, general trash and construction debris: We help and encourage clients to recycle these products.

Click here for more information about Hoffberger’s sustainability efforts.

Hoffberger Moving Services is well known and respected for its expertise in commercial moving for government offices, hospitals, research facilities, warehouse facilities, libraries and museums.

However, we sometimes get the opportunity to take on relocation projects outside the norm. I think we, as well as our clients, benefit greatly from the experience.

Such was the case when we recently had the privilege of helping New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, move to its new campus in the city’s Seton Business Park. The 7,000-member congregation has built a spectacular worship center, affectionately called The Holy City of Zion, which includes a 4,000-seat sanctuary and 175,000 square feet of ministry space.

Our job for three days in mid-October was to move everything – offices, classrooms and the sanctuary – from New Psalmist’s former complex on Old Frederick Road in Baltimore to the new campus. A church is like a second home for its members, and we approached this move as if we were moving a treasured collection of personal belongings.

We carefully moved items ranging from religious artifacts to organs, drums and other delicate instruments that support the church’s world-renowned choir. Because of New Psalmist’s wide following, its services are televised each week, so we also had to move cameras and other sensitive broadcast equipment.

The really fun part of this move was we had the opportunity to work with and interact with literally dozens of volunteers from the congregation. (Very often, we work mostly alone, at night, as to not interrupt our clients’ business operations.) The congregation’s effort and enthusiasm were nothing short of inspiring.

This holiday season, we’d like to wish all the members of New Psalmist Baptist Church continued blessings in their new home!